Tag Archives: Thomas Dunne Books

It’s hard to believe, but it’s five years today since HATER was re-released by Thomas Dunne Books in the US and Gollancz here in the UK. It’s no exaggeration to say that little book changed my life. Before its release I’d been doing fairly well for myself publishing the first three AUTUMN books through Infected Books and I’d been planning to expand. I launched HATER with the intention of kick-starting a new series, but I had no idea what would happen next.

Within a couple of months, with less than a thousand copies having been sold, I was approached about the film rights. That deal went on to see Guillermo del Toro, J A Bayona (director of The Impossible and the forthcoming World War Z 2) and Mark Johnson (producer of Breaking Bad, amongst other things) involved with my book, and led to the HATER series being picked up for publication in many countries around the world.

So please join me in saying Happy Birthday HATER! If you haven’t read the book, visit www.thehatertrilogy.com to find out more. And here, for old time’s sake, is a viral video released by Thomas Dunne to support the original release.

And no – I don’t have any news about the movie (I’ll update here if I do). But yes – one way or another I’m determined there WILL be a HATER film eventually!

A brief disclaimer: as I’ve said previously, it feels pretentious to be writing a retrospective of my own books. I think I’m doing this for my own benefit more than anything else, so please bear with me. It’s some weird kind of personal therapy, I think…

For me, the writing process usually begins when I come up with an ending, then work my way back to the beginning of a story. Not so with the second AUTUMN novel. This time, just to be different, I began with the middle.

I’d been wondering what had happened to Michael and Emma after escaping the farm house at the end of the first book (it wasn’t until recently that I actually went back and filled in that part of their story – see BREAKING POINT over at www.lastoftheliving.net). I had visions of them quickly coming to the conclusion it would be too dangerous to stay in one place, and so electing to base themselves in a mobile home and move whenever the immediate danger became too great. But I knew that in order to move the overall AUTUMN story forward – and it was starting to feel like a much bigger story by that point – they’d need to interact with characters we hadn’t yet met. This meeting – whenever and with whomever – would have to happen almost a month after the initial infection, and yet I wanted these new characters to feel like people we already knew. The best option, I thought – though not necessarily the most obvious – was to rewind time and start from the beginning again.

About a year ago, I received an email from Nicole, my editor’s assistant at Thomas Dunne Books, asking me to blurb a new title they’d acquired – REEL TERROR by David Konow. Those of you who’ve had the misfortune of waiting for me to blurb something will know that it usually takes me somewhere between a long time and forever. Not on this occasion: I picked the book up early on a Friday evening and was done by the next day.

REEL TERROR is a lovingly written history of horror cinema, covering everything from The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, right up to Paranormal Activity. It’s a fascinating read which looks at why some movies hit the mark and others don’t. Replete with huge numbers of anecdotes and interviews with some of the most important people in the genre, you’ll lap it up if you’re a horror fan like me. Here’s my blurb:

“REEL TERROR is a love letter to a much-maligned genre… thoroughly recommended to anyone with even a passing interest in the history of horror movie scares. Written with passion and deep respect, it’ll broaden your understanding of how horror developed from the black-and-white Universal classics to the mainstream smashes of the last decades. A fascinating look at the history of horror, filled with stories, details, and memories that remind you why you fell in love with the genre in the first place. Superb.”

Can it be almost a year since THEM OR US was released? Incredibly it is, and today Gollancz are releasing a mass market paperback edition of the book.

I always knew the final HATER novel would be a divisive book. After the maelstrom and fury of DOG BLOOD, the violence couldn’t just keep increasing exponentially, and so I took the decision to follow Danny McCoyne’s story in the radioactive, rubble-strewn aftermath of the war between the Haters and Unchanged. It’s a grim and uncompromising conclusion, I think, and to my mind it’s the only way Danny’s story could have ended.

Thanks to the ineptitude of a certain British Telecommunications company I won’t name, I’m currently offline and probably will continue to be so for the next few weeks. I’ve got a lot of posts to share, so I’m currently doing the rounds of relatives’ homes and local Starbucks trying to schedule them all in without outstaying my welcome anywhere…

First off, today sees the release of the mass market paperback edition of THEM OR US in the US from Thomas Dunne Books/St Martin’s Griffin. The longer I have to reflect on the HATER trilogy, the prouder I feel of the story as a whole. I’ll be putting together a retrospective on the series at some point in the next couple of months. (It was nice to see Glen Mazzara – Walking Dead showrunner – saying kind things about the first book again recently…)

“The war that has torn the human race apart is finally nearing its end. With most towns and cities now uninhabitable, and with the country in the grip of a savage nuclear winter, both Hater and Unchanged alike struggle to survive.

Hundreds of Hater fighters have settled on the East Coast in the abandoned remains of a relatively undamaged town under the command of Hinchcliffe—who’ll stop at nothing to eradicate the last few Unchanged and consolidate his position at the top of this new world order. This fledgling society is harsh and unforgiving—your place in the ranks is decided by how long and how hard you’re prepared to fight.

Danny McCoyne is the exception to the rule. His ability to hold the Hate and to use it to hunt out the remaining Unchanged has given him a unique position in Hinchcliffe’s army of fighters. As the enemy’s numbers reduce, so the pressure on McCoyne increases, until he finds himself at the very center of a pivotal confrontation, the outcome of which will have repercussions on the future of everyone who is left alive.”

Your books will be in the post shortly. I’m still waiting for three final winners to confirm their details with me. If you followed me on Facebook last month, check your messages as the books were all won by new Facebook followers.

Thanks again to everyone who entered, and huge thanks also to the kind folks at Thomas Dunne Books / St Martins’ Griffin for putting up the prizes.

AUTUMN: AFTERMATH – the final book in the AUTUMN series – is released in the US today. There will be a few more shorts to come and more releases of the novels in various different territories, but as far as the overall AUTUMN story goes, this is it. The end.

To celebrate the release, I’ve got ten copies of AFTERMATH to give away courtesy of the good folks at Thomas Dunne Books/St Martin’s Griffin.

To stand a chance of winning, just do one or more of the following before 31st March (you’ll get an entry for each you do).

follow me on Twitter (@davidjmoody) and Tweet about the release of AFTERMATH (remember to include the hashtag #aftermath)

If you’re already a Twitter follower or Facebook fan, just tweet/post about the book and remember to include the appropriate tag.

Remember – as always – the competition is open worldwide, and my decision is final. Only one tweet and one Facebook post per person please. The winners will be chosen at random and announced by 1st April. Good luck!

UPDATE 1st APRIL – COMPETITION CLOSED. WINNERS WILL BE ANNOUNCED SHORTLY.

I’ve been waiting years to be able to type that sentence! AUTUMN: DISINTEGRATION was finally released today through Thomas Dunne/St Martin’s Griffin in the US. First announced in 2006 and finished in 2008, it’s taken far longer than I ever expected to get the book out. It seems to be going down well, though…

Library Journal said: “In Disintegration, the best installment, Moody ventures into Lord of the Flies territory. The juxtaposition of the two groups of survivors and the consequent tension between them produces excruciating suspense not seen before in the series. The ending is utterly chilling…”

28dayslateranalysis.com said: “The wait was well worth it.”

And after keeping you waiting for several years too many, I can’t wait to hear what you think of it. Please grab the book and let me know. The UK edition, by the way, is out on December 29th. Apologies for the extra delay, UK readers.

Coming soon – more short stories featuring the new characters from DISINTEGRATION, a chance to win some original AUTUMN artwork, and your first glimpse into the dead world of AUTUMN: AFTERMATH.

The human race has been torn apart, and now the war is reaching its end. There is only one question: will it be THEM OR US? The concluding book in the HATER trilogy is released in the US today through Thomas Dunne Books.

BloodyDisgusting.com said: “Like the two previous entries, THEM OR US flaunts a blistering pace and riveting dialogue… If HATER is Anarchy and DOG BLOOD is War, THEM OR US is a straight-up Holocaust, a hugely satisfying finale that really hits the post-apocalyptic sweet spot.”

Fangoria said: “As much an allegory for today’s frightening climate of terrorism, controversial wars and us-versus-them mentality as it is a horror/”zombie” yarn, the HATER trilogy has worked best when it is most human, and Danny’s struggle to remain that is the heart of this series. By the time all hell breaks loose in THEM OR US‘s finale, it’s easy to see parallels to our world’s current crises and conflicts.”

It’s less than a month now until THEM OR US is released. I’m planning a very special one-off event in the UK in late November to mark the launch, and I hope to be able to tell you more about that in the next couple of weeks.

In the meantime, courtesy of Thomas Dunne Books, I thought you might like to read the opening pages of the new book. It goes without saying that there are spoilers here, so if you haven’t yet read HATER and DOG BLOOD (and if not, why not?!!), you really shouldn’t read any further…